"I'm so thrilled that you've chosen ME, as your guinea pig," Judy said sarcastically.
"Well, guinea pigs are heavily unionized, and I don't have the kind of funds for them," Pandora explained.
"Well... nothing ventured, nothing gained," Judy said as she pressed a series of buttons on the TSDD, and eventually, a portal to the past opened. "So I just step through?"
"Yep... just step through," Pandora said, Judy took a deep breath and entered. The portal then closed in a violent explosion after she went through. "Well..." Pandora said, blackened ash covering her face. "I should probably work on making another one in order to find her... thankfully I got enough of Josephus's weird Time Metal to-" There was another explosion, and the portal opened again, with Judy exiting.
"Oh my... is it supposed to make this kind of mess?" Judy asked looking at the ash covering her daughter.
"Nope... no, I would not intend for it to cause this kind of mess going from present to past." Pandora then coughed from the ash. "So... where did you go?"
"Oh... just took a stroll down memory lane," Judy said, deliberately not telling Pandora. That she had in fact preserved a paradox that prevented Dr. Mulerson from taking over the world with his robots, that allowed the current timeline to exist in the first place.
"I imagine... to the good old days... when you and dad were respected, police officers. And most certainly NOT, throw their family under the bus just to get ahead." Pandora said sarcastically, not noticing that Judy's nose was bleeding. "Put an ungrateful world before your children and-"
"Yes... yes I remember," Judy said as she tried to hide her nosebleed, figuring that Pandora would quickly figure out that she had done something. "One quick question though... would it be normal for nosebleeds to happen when returning to the present?" She asked.
"Not unless you changed the timeline, your mind would be trying to acclimate to the memories that the change in the timeline would cause... why even ask?" Pandora asked.
"Well, all the same, your TSDD works like a dream," Judy said, completely ignoring the question.
Eventually, Pandora further refined the TSDD design. Mainly to keep the portals from explosively closing behind mammals. One day, Elizabeth, her robot friend, and creation came to her apartment. "Salutations Pandora!" Elizabeth said cheerfully.
"Hey Elizabeth." Pandora said as she looked up at Elizabeth from her work. Specifically, she was making a prosthetic leg for an elephant. "Just give me a moment." She said as she worked on the elephant's leg. "And... there we go." Pandora said as she finished on the leg.
"Thank you... bless your heart." The elephant said as she took Pandora into a large bone crushing hug. "My leg has been acting up for months. And every mechanic I went to has been saying that it would cost a fortune to fix!" The elephant gushed.
"... thanks... are not... nessissary." Pandora said, stugling to breath under the elephant's hug. "PUT DOWN THE CHIMERA!" She shouted. The elephant then sheepishly put Pandora down, paid her for her services and left. "So, you're probably wondering why I asked you to come?"
"You want to hear my first original song?" Elizabeth said.
"Nope... I finally got my Time and Space Displacement Device working properly." Pandora said as she proudly showed off the TSDD. "Now... what's a moment in history you'd like to see?"
"Hmm... that is a touphy." Elizabeth mused. "Does it have to be a specific historical moment?" She asked.
"Well, we don't know what'll happen in the future. Or what our absences might cause... trust me, with history we'll at least know what'll happen to a degree." Pandora said.
"Very well, I believe... Woodstock, 1969." Elizabeth said.
"Really?... that just seems odd to me," Pandora said in surprise. "I mean wouldn't you want to see when the first conventionally modern computers were invented, or the earliest forms of robots?" She asked.
"You'd think so. But whilst studying music with Ms. Sally Samuel. I grew facinated by the history of events like the original Woodstock." Elizabeth said. "A coming together of America's youth, all in the name of peace, love, and music."
"And the consumtion of mind altering substances, and protesting a badly managed war... I'd argue. But then we'd be here all day." Pandora said, she then reluctantly opened a portal. Then went through... and there time there was a complete and utter blur for Pandora. As she somehow caught a whiff of a halusanegenic substance. Three days latter, after everyone else had left. Pandora awoke from her haze... naked, and covered in mud. "Okay... what happened?" Pandora noted, as her vision returned to her. It was hazy. But she noticed the general area deserted and covered in trash.
"I stole the show!" Elizabeth said proudly.
"You... you did what?!" Pandora said, unsure of what her robotic friend had just said.
"I blew everyone away with my singing! In fact, I think I was the only act." Elizabeth said, that was when it clicked in Pandora's head. "Especially my-"
"So... you changed the past?" Pandora asked. "Don't you understand what could happen?" She said.
"Uh... not exactly," Elizabeth said.
"Well let me put it in simple terms," Pandora said as she opened a portal. "Were going back to the beginning of this... and we're going to STOP you from turning Woodstock into the 'Elizabeth Show'. Because I do NOT want to run the risk of returning to the present, finding out whatever changes THIS caused, OR risk forgetting any changes to our timeline."
"Oh..." Elizabeth said, realizing the implication of what Pandora was saying. "I'm sorry."
"Just follow me in and help," Pandora said snappily. Eventually, she and Elizabeth set right what went wrong. Thankfully, it was fairly simple for them. As all they had to do was restrain Elizabeth's past self, as well as keeping Pandora's past self from causing any changes that the present Pandora didn't remember doing while as high as a kite.
"So..." Elizabeth said. "Can we see-"
"No... I'm sorry. But you were iresponcible in leaving me alone while you changed a historical event." Pandora said irritably as she opened a portal back to the present. "So no. You're not going to see the original Woodstock, in fact. I'm not going to chance you messing around with the past like this again."
"I..." Elizabeth said, taken aback by her friend and creators sterness. "I didn't mean to cause any-"
"Through the portal. NOW." Pandora said Elizabeth said nothing else as she followed Pandora through the portal.
"Could I fix you some lasanga?" Elizabeth offered.
"No... I just barred you from traveling through time with me. I'd rather not have you wait on me hand and foot after that." Pandora said. "Though I wouldn't say no to that for my birthday."
"Splended... I will show myself out." Elizabeth said as she hastily left the apartment.
"Although... I do see a money making opportunity here." Pandora said to herself. Realizing that with the power to travel through time. She had a unique opportunity. A week later Pandora quickly opened a portal to an office. "Sir... I have come to bargain."
"Who the devil are you? How did you get in here?!" Asked a wolf in a buisness suit and bowler hat.
"That depends, are you the current Director-General of the BBC?" Pandora asked the wolf nodded. "Good, because I have an appointment with you, and what I have to offer you is rather simple. I have a time machine," She said as she showed off the TSDD. "And I'm fairly certain that your... organization has several decades of missing TV."
"Yes, I know. The BBC back then had very little to work with in terms of effective film storage back then. So most of British history on TV has been lost to the ages." The Director-General said.
"And I'm offering YOU. The unique opportunity to get these lost bits of history." Pandora said. "I go back in time, and recover anything that could be of interest."
"Hmm... I'll take your offer." The Director General said.
"Then I'll be back momentarily. Just sign your name on this contract." Pandora said as she gave a contract to the Director-General. "It's rather simple actually, you don't need your lawyers to look over it." She said as she opened a portal back in time... unfortunatly. Rather than arriving in 1969 to save the lost episodes of Doctor Howl. She was in Bunnyburrow in 2017. Specifically her grandparent's house, and bumped into her mother Judy.
"Wait, this isn't the right place. What year is… it… mom?" The unfamiliar mammal asked.
"Uh… I think you have me confused for someone else. I'm Judy, I don't have any children… yet, who are you and why are you in my family's home?" Judy asked, trying to be friendly to this strange mammal.
"No… no, you're definitely my mother. Look I shouldn't even be here. I thought that I was going to end up in London in 1963." The mysterious mammal said as she began to fuss over some manner of watch-like device.
"Wait… you do look familiar." Judy said, noting that the women did look like a larger and obviously older version of the as yet unnamed hybrid. Only her fur was a mix of red with grey blotches as opposed to just red, like Nick. Not only that, but one eye was purple and the other one was green. "No it can't be, she's red and your… not. I mean, you have red fur, but it's not completely red." Judy said.
"What? Oh that, well mom… as puberty hit, blotches of grey happened… mostly grey anyway. But I didn't come back in time to split hairs… the fact of the matter is, is if this thing worked you shouldn't even be born yet, and I should be recording ancient footage of Doctor Howl on commission for the BBC and-"
"Keep your voice down… mammals are trying to sleep." Judy said.
"Oh! Sorry, my point is, is that this thing seems to be on the fritz, and I have no idea how I'm in Bunnyburrow during the Digital Dark Age when I submitted 19… huh… apparently, I have no idea how to use my own invention." The mystery mammal said.
"Look, who are you really?" Judy asked.
"I'm your daughter. I'm from the future, and I'm basically an adventure-inventor-archeologist... right now anyway. My name is Pandora… and I'm sorry for being in such a hurry. I only recently invented this thing, and I have to get back home to figure out what's wrong with this thing." Pandora said.
"Pandora… that's a very nice name." Judy said.
"Well it better be; you and dad spent MONTHS arguing about the name. True story, I wasn't even legally named until I was… almost a year… old… I just fudged up, didn't I? I muddled with my maternal families personal history?" Pandora said in resignation.
"You apparently saved me and Nick from months of stupid arguing. Is it really THAT big a deal?" Judy asked.
"Hmm… not really, but still, time travel is an inherently risky, dangerous and confusing venture. Even a small, seemingly insignificant change to the timeline can cause unimaginable chaos down the line. But now I must go… I have a time machine to fix, and lost episodes of Doctor Howl to retrieve." Pandora said as she disappeared in a blue flash.
After that incident, Pandora worked feverishly, both to improve the TSDD and prevent accidentally going to wrong times again, and to fulfill her end of the contract she signed with the BBC. But she was baffled as to how Judy, the Judy from her present knew about the change Pandora made in the timeline in the first place.
Then, after having set up a scanning system to keep track of the prototype Time Space Displacement Device, Pandora followed her mother into the past. Just in time to see a fox, and a wolf froze in time. "I get to do something that's haunted me for years, or for about a week or so, my memories are wonky in places… but it's preventing Bogo's assassination." Judy said.
"So you WERE screwing around with the past!" Pandora said.
"…you put some kind of tracking program in this didn't you?" Judy asked, gesturing to the prototype Time and Space Displacement Device.
"Yes, and let me tell you. It wasn't easy to program a cross-temporal tracking algorithm… not to say I had any real problems making one, it was just tricky figuring out how to track it all together. But that's beside the point. What do you think you're doing here?" Pandora asked.
"I'll explain, but this… what did I do to them exactly?" Judy asked.
"Temporal Freezing, I'd explain the science but I know It'd just go over your head. Not because you're dumb, it's just that I know that you don't really understand the REALLY theoretical stuff. And we MIGHT be pressed for some time." Pandora said.
"Well the Temporal Freezing on them won't last long, and I have to get Karl's gun as far away from him as I can," Judy said.
"Ah, so you're going to change history… much like you did already?" Pandora said cockily.
"That depends, how much about the universe I came from do you know about?" Judy said in aggravation.
"Absolutely nothing... my equipment is mainly for time travel, not alternate timelines," Pandora said.
"Well if you must know, Robot Apocalypse. The last thing I saw from THAT timeline was you dying from shrapnel to your heart thanks to your roboticized Uncle Davies! And Nick barley keeping the doors up, as robots were bursting into the bunker and it didn't help because they got inside anyway! So if you followed me here to try to claim the moral high ground about time travel. Then please, go right ahead I won't stop you from rambling." Judy ranted.
"Oh… mom, I was just curious." Pandora said, realizing what was happening. "I-I didn't know… I didn't mean to-"
"No, no Pandora. Your right, why not stop the event that got Bogo killed, nearly led Zootopia to ruin, Long-Fang nearly takes over the city, and he turned your father into a nearly brain-dead vegetable! Because let me tell you something! I DID NOT LEAVE MY HUSBAND AND ONLY DAUGHTER AND CHILD PERIOD TO DIE TO ROBOTS FOR A WORLD LIKE THAT! EXPECIALY ONE, WHERE THE ONLY TIME YOUR FARTHER IS COHERENT IS WHEN HE RECOLLECTS TRAUMATIC MEMORIES! AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS RAMBLING ABOUT PUDDING AND BLUEBERRIES!" Judy ranted, tears streaming out of her good eye.
"Mom… I'm sorry, I just… I was just confused about why the TSDD transported me to the wrong year when I used it. I mean… why didn't you just say up front that you were from a different timeline? I never wanted to open old wounds for you… and telling me in the first place could have avoided that." Pandora said Judy, said nothing as she cried. "Oh… mom, I… this, this is good for you to let it out. But this isn't really a good time to cry." Pandora said as she noticed that Karl and Delphine were starting to move from the Temporal Freezing.
"I'm sorry Pan… when I learned what happened to Bogo and Zootopia… and Nick, I… I just couldn't sit on my tail and do nothing-"
"Mom, deal with assassins who probably wouldn't be against killing us, even if you weren't trying to interfere with their work, apologetic blubbering latter… like when we get back to the future." Pandora said as Karl and Delphine broke free of the Temporal Freezing.
"Karl, line up your shot, leave them to me," Delphine said as she turned into her monstrous Vampire form.
"OKAY! THAT IS NOT NORMAL!" Pandora shrieked as Delphine grabbed Pandora. While Judy wrestled with Karl over the sniper rifle, in the struggle it went off.
Judy threw Karl off the rifle and looked through the scope to see if Bogo had survived the shot. "Oh… thank goodness, the shot didn't hit him… not his brain at least." Judy said as she looked through the scope on Karl's sniper rifle, seeing as Bogo stood up with part of his right horn missing.
Pandora was struggling under Delphine's undead strength. "You are strong little one… but what are you I wonder?" Delphine gloated.
"Yeah… you wouldn't believe me even if I told you." Pandora said as Delphine forced her to the ground.
"Oh don't worry my petite fille… this won't hurt me in the least." Delphine said as she slowly drew blood from Pandora's face.
"Mom… this fox is being creepy. Like… well, you remember those Hannibal movies…? I feel like it's going to end like that! But with a crazy fox instead of a crazy elephant!" Pandora said in terror.
"I'm sorry Pan, I have my paws full," Judy said as Karl restrained her on the ground
"I don't know what's going on here rabbit, but we're going to finish our job!" Karl said.
"Hmm… a unique vintage, one that seems to be… bunny AND fox?! This… this is so much better than that time I had a mule! As much as I hate to keep blood from my lips, I believe that this blood should be saved for later… if only to answer questions." Delphine said as she licked her lips, then she removed a test tube, and put some of Pandora's blood into it.
"Please tell me your done playing around? Bogo's not dead yet and-"
"And you're not touching him!" Judy said as she kicked Karl off of her. "And you! Step away from my daughter, or you will get a splitting headache!" Judy said as she hefted up Karl's sniper rifle.
Delphine just looked dismissive as she put away the test tube of Pandora's blood into a pouch on her belt. "Oh please little bunny, you can barely hold the thing properly-" Delphine's head then exploded into a mess of gore.
"Yeah… not my first time using a weapon meant for larger mammals like this." Judy said as she removed the clip from the smoking rifle, and threw both over the edge of the building. "Now… let's get out of here Pandora. With any luck, nobody but these screwballs will know that we were ever here… just got to get off a quick text that the assassin and his team are here." Judy said as she quickly texted a message on a smartphone.
"And… and no more messing around, with the past mom, changing things just because you don't like how the future turned out?" Pandora said as she used her TSDD to heal over the scar Delphine had made.
"That'll depend on the need, and even then. It'll be just things effect AFTER the Night Howler Crisis. For now, I'll let my younger self-be… as much fun as it would be to stroll down memory-"
"Yeah, I'm big on nostalgia too. Now let's leave before we get Swinton elected city mayor or worse President." Pandora said as she opened a time portal back to the late 2030s.
"One of these days, you're going to enjoy yourself beyond inventing in a cramped little apartment," Judy said as she blinked back with the prototype TSDD.
"Wait... but Bogo was alive in the present timeline. And dad was NEVER a traumatized vegetable... traumatized certainly but not-" Pandora then noted as Karl recovered from his concussion, and Delphine's head grew back. "-a good reason to lose your tail to a weirdo and a thug!" Pandora said as she hastily opened a portal to the present, and found herself back in her apartment. "Clancy, call mom."
"Roger that," Clancy said, eventually, Judy picked up.
"Time for Q&A?" Judy asked blithely.
"Time for Q&A, who were those two? And why did the fox's head grow back despite being blown off by a high caliber sniper rifle... and, you know. The fact that's impossible, especially for the Digital Dark Ages." Pandora asked.
"Karl Wolfski, and Delphine. Karl was a mercenary before he was killed during the Sagittarius Incident. Delphine was a Vampire... I'm not even joking. Vampires are real, undead monsters that sustain themselves with mortal blood." Judy explained.
"Oh... but another that was bugging me. What you were saying about a timeline where Bogo was actually killed, and dad was basically a vegetable." Pandora asked.
"Never mind that, all I did was enforce a paradox that allowed our world... to be a better place," Judy said. "And before you even ask, the last time you learned something shocking I had down. You somehow managed to single handily bring a multi-billion dollar flying aircraft carrier crashing into Zootopia bay... and THAT was built to survive super-powered individuals running amok on it." She said.
"Fair enough... fair enough," Pandora said.
"Hey... you know I just got this crazy idea," Judy said. "YOU, could go back in time, and keep yourself from ever meeting Elijah-"
"NO!" Pandora said in surprise. "I mean... you said that you originally came from a timeline that suffered a robot apocalypse because of Dr. Mullerson. And the only reason I made the Time and Space Displacement Device in THIS timeline, was because of Camelski's betrayal... that means I CAN'T change my own personal timeline... not even for my personal benefit." Pandora explained.
"Are you sure? Because if you were meant to build that thing." Judy said, trying to reassure her mentally scarred daughter. "Then that should mean you will have made it, regardless of-"
"Mom! I can't run the risk... the paradoxes have to be maintained. I just... I just have to keep moving forward that's all... try to finally pull myself up out of the dirt." Pandora said.
"Oh... I'm sorry you feel that way." Judy said.
"And you won't make that specific change... promise?" Pandora said frantically.
Judy looked distraught at her daughter's condition. "I... I promise." Judy said. "Goodbye... hope to hear from you again."
"What... oh right... Mother's Day is coming up." Pandora said shakily. "I... I'll try to get something for you. Bye." Pandora said as she hung up.
Then Judy opened a desk in her desk, inside was a homemade mug. On it read 'For the World's Greatest Mom, Happy Mother's Day! Pandora, Age 4'. "Pancake... I wish we could reclaim those lost moments. But... but if you don't want me to change your timeline... I won't." Judy said as she started to cry. "I so wish I could have been the mother you needed."